Former UK PM Sunak, now working for AI companies, wants to abolish National Insurance safety net to reduce unemployment

[highplainsdem]

National Insurance in the UK funds their pensions, unemployment, disability and part of the NHS (health care system). It's most of their social safety net.

And former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak, now an adviser for Anthropic and Microsoft, is suggesting businesses will be much more likely to use AI than hire any new employees, especially recent graduates who are already being hired less because of AI, unless the government makes employing human workers more attractive by getting rid of National Insurance (or at least employers' contributions to it).

Sunak wouldn't be suggesting this, IMO, unless Anthropic and Microsoft weren't in agreement and wanted him to talk about this.

So the genAI industry is not only coming for people's jobs, but for the social safety net, or at least as much of it as is funded by employers' contributions.

From the BBC today:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg07x4rejdo

Artificial intelligence (AI) is flattening the jobs market for young people and governments should eliminate National Insurance to make hiring workers more attractive, former prime minister Rishi Sunak has told the BBC.

Sunak, now an adviser to AI firm Anthropic and Microsoft, said while he is an enthusiast for the transformative impact of AI, he said concerns from graduates looking for entry level jobs were justified.

-snip-

Sunak suggested rebalancing the tax system by abolishing National Insurance "over time" and replacing with it with taxes on corporate profits.

These, he said, would be boosted by productivity and efficiencies in deploying AI.

-snip-

Of course we all know how good businesses are at avoiding paying taxes. Something they haven't been able to do with taxes on employees' salaries for that social safety net in the UK (and the US).

But it's apparently occured to them that they can use the threat of AI replacing more and more employees to get rid of that tax.

Those American companies have also been putting tremendous pressure on the UK government the last few years to change British copyright and intellectual property laws to legalize the genAI companies' theft of intellectual property to train their AI. That effort has failed so far, thanks to British creatives including Paul McCartney and Elton John speaking out in defense of creatives' rights and mobilizing public opinion.

This new attack on human workers from the AI industry is apparently targeted at younger workers they want to convince to trade pensions and health care in the future for jobs now.

[highplainsdem]

1. kick

[GenThePerservering]

2. I don't think Rishi(!) knows how any of this works. nt

[highplainsdem]

3. I'm sure he knows what he's proposing won't increase employment, but he's hoping enough voters

will fall for it for Conservatives to regain power. And the AI companies would love to blame the social safety net (and employers having to contribute to it) for businesses not hiring as many workers as they implement AI.

If this crazy suggestion gets any traction at all in the UK, expect the genAI industry here in the US and their paid shills to start saying that one way to reduce unemployment from AI would be to eliminate the employers' share of FICA.